Why you can trust TechRadar
We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Fractal Scape review: one-minute review
The bar keeps being raised in gaming peripherals lately, and as such, there’s no room for overpriced or feature-bloated models whose specs don’t translate to a great user experience. Fractal Design clearly knows this very well as it enters the wireless gaming headset market with a $200 model that looks like something Apple would try to sell you for $500, and comes with a charging dock and feature set that you’ll be more accustomed to seeing from pricer Astro headsets.
The looks will be a big selling point for many, as you’d expect from Fractal and its reputation for understated, Scandi-style PC cases. Available in both black and white, it’s got a grown-up look quite apart from the gaming peripherals of yesteryear, and with a detachable mic and Bluetooth connectivity, you can quite comfortably leave the house wearing the Fractal Design Scape as your smartphone’s headset without broadcasting an overstated ‘gamer gear’ look to the world and its judging eyes.
Also included is a wireless charging station, which will juice up the headset with up to 40 hours of use when RGB is disabled, and up to 24 when it’s enabled. Taking the headset out of the magnetic dock automatically powers it on, which feels like an incredibly decadent feature for this price.
While the materials and design generally lend themselves well to comfort – with a particular shout-out due to the high-grade memory foam earcup covers – this definitely favors a smaller head size, and I have concerns about the amount of padding on the headband itself. If you’ve got a larger head, you may start to feel the headband dig in during longer sessions.
It’s not perfect then, but that imperfection is effectively offset by how generous Fractal has been by adding not just a detachable boom mic but a built-in omnidirectional mic too. Not to mention fundamentally crisp and clear sound with some meaty bass response.
Fractal Scape review: price & availability
- List price: $199.99 / £169.99 (around AU$285)
- Astro-like features for a far lower price
- Priced competitively against Razer Blackshark V2 Pro and PlayStation Pulse Elite
The price point is a big win for Fractal out of the gates. How the manufacturer has managed to bundle a high-quality headset and charging station that look ready to sit in the window of an Apple store is anyone’s guess, but somehow that very thing has been achieved. The choice of two mics and strong construction materials and finish quality are further bonuses that make this a frontrunner in the $150-$200 market.
The competition? Probably still two members of the old guard. PlayStation’s official PS5 Pulse Elite headset features similarly elegant looks and hassle-free wireless operation, while Razer’s older Blackshark V2 is more of an all-rounder that features similar device compatibility to the Scape.
Fractal Scape review: Specs
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Fractal Design Scape |
|
Price |
$199.99 / £169.99 / around AU$285 |
|
Weight |
11.8.oz / 338g |
|
Compatibility |
PC, Mac, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, iOS/Android |
|
Connection type |
2,4 GHz Wireless via USB-A dongle, Bluetooth 5.3, Wired via USB-C to USB-A cable |
|
Battery life |
40 hours RGB off, 24 hours RGB on |
|
Microphone |
1x detachable unidirectional 50–16 000 Hz, 1x omnidirectional (built-in) |
Fractal Scape review: Design & features
- Typically minimalist looks
- Wireless dock will beautify your desk
- Sensible controls layout
Fractal’s headset was never going to be an aggressive, overwrought affair. Its cases are recognizable for their elegant minimalism, and the same is very much true of this Scape. It’s reminiscent at first glance of Steelseries’ Arctis range, but has a ‘debadged’ look and the most minimal of RGB zones that carries through the Scandi operation’s less is more philosophy.
The dock features magnetic connections that keep the headset in place and carries through the understated look, guaranteed to bring some culture and sophistication to your desk, no matter how many Funko Pops it’s sharing the real estate with. A USB-A dongle is hidden on the underside of that dock so that you can plug the dongle into the dock and use the USB cable from the dock to your device’s USB port, keeping things nice and clean and giving you a bit more choice over where to position the dock.
In addition to the usual physical controls at the rear of each earcup (power, wireless/Bluetooth connection, and mic mute on the left, RGB on/off on the right), there’s a ‘control crown’ in the upper-left rear which controls volume and provides some multimedia controls for pausing music and skipping tracks. While every other control works well, feels sturdy, and is easy to find without having to take off the headset, I find the control crown a bit fiddly. It’s too small to make precise volume changes easily, and pressing and holding the crown to pause or skip feels awkward.
With that said, it’s extremely impressive that the two mic options have bespoke mute mechanics. The boom arm is flip-to-mute, whereas the built-in omnidirectional is controlled with a button.
Fractal Scape review: Performance
- Strong and precise sound
- Great battery performance
- Headband comfort can be an issue
Great care has clearly been taken to build a lot of comfort into these cans. That’s most evident when you give the earcup cushions a squeeze and find the most luxuriously squishy memory foam pads you ever squished. This is seriously high-grade material, equivalent to flagship Bose models.
And it’s a vital piece of the comfort puzzle, because the Scape offsets its middleweight heft (11.9oz / 338g is on the lighter side of average for wireless sets now) with a lot of clamping force. The idea is that the tighter the earcups clamp around your ears, the less weight hangs from the headband on top of your head. Plus, you get a nice bit of passive noise cancellation and a tight acoustic chamber for low-end frequencies to resonate in.
That works on two of three fronts. It’s great at blocking out noise, and the bass response sounds full-bodied. But personally, I still notice the weight of the headband during longer sessions, and when I examine its construction, I find considerably less padding and considerably lower-grade cushion material.
It’s still absolutely possible to adjust the Scape so that it sits comfortably for marathon sessions, by extending the headband as big as possible and thereby placing more emphasis on the horizontal clamping force. But it’s something to keep in mind if your mind is kept within a larger skull.
The sound quality isn’t audiophile stuff, but with a standard-issue 20Hz-20KHz frequency response range, its drivers are more than capable of articulating power, detail, and nuance all at the same time in your game mix. Even with a Discord buddy shouting callouts with their 2011 headset mic.
The battery goes for just as long as the specs suggest, and during my real-world testing, I found more than 40 hours could transpire before I got the beeps. It’s so welcome to have an RGB off button on the headset rather than having to delve into Fractal’s (actually very decent, zero-footprint, web-only) software app, and similarly, I found that enabling the lighting didn’t quite reduce the charge life down to 24 hours. Perhaps I like to play at a lower volume than Fractal does.
Onto the choice of mics. It’s a double-edged sword, this feature, because although it’s incredible value to have two inputs on one headset, the noise cancellation on the unidirectional boom mic isn’t very strong, and external noises can leak into your voice chat. That’s even more true when using the omnidirectional mic, obviously. So: yes to dual mic design, no to the noise cancellation. This is the sort of thing that can be remedied in firmware updates, though, and I really hope it is because otherwise this is an exemplary package, and it’s priced low enough to have established brands like Razer, Logitech G, and Corsair worried.
Should you buy the Fractal Scape?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider…
Does this Fractal leave you in two minds? Consider these premium wireless alternatives.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Fractal Scape |
Razer BlackShark V2 Pro |
PlayStation Pulse Elite |
|
Price |
$199.99 / £169.99 / around AU$285 |
$199 / £199 / AU$349 |
$149.99 / £129.99 / AU$239.95 |
|
Weight |
11.84oz / 338g |
11.2oz / 320g |
12.1oz / 347g |
|
Compatibility |
PC, Mac, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, iOS/Android |
PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch |
PS5, PlayStation Portal, PC, Mac |
|
Connection type |
2.4 GHz Wireless via USB-A dongle, Bluetooth 5.3, Wired via USB-C to USB-A cable |
Bluetooth, 2.4GHz wireless (Hyperspeed dongle) |
Wireless (PlayStation Link via dongle), Wired (3.5mm audio jack), Bluetooth |
|
Battery life |
40 hours RGB off, 24 hours RGB on |
70 hours |
30 hours |
How I tested the Fractal Scape
- Weeks of daily use on PC, PS5 and iPhone
- All connection types tested
- Tested in online games, Discord comms, and work calls
This being a wireless product with a ton of usability options, including an on/off RGB battery saving setting, it was important to stress-test the Scape’s stated battery capacity and wireless stability.
That meant tracking hours of use without charge, putting in some long mountaineering sessions in Cairn, and plenty of Discord walk-and-talks to test out the wireless range.
First reviewed February 2026
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7SQS9rgDgdiwNQiL6mAoJJ-2560-80.jpg
Source link
